The transition, which AdAge’s anonymous industry sources say will begin in the first half of 2013, will stick video commercials in your browser, tablet, and phone. Annoying, right? But what could be even worse is that there’s no play button:

In what’s sure to be a controversial move, the visual component of the Facebook video ads will start playing automatically — a dynamic known as “autoplay” — according to two of the executives.

This means an ad for Bacardi (if you’re targeted as a drinker) will show up upon your arrival at The Book and start flashing without any intervention—”Facebook is still debating whether to have the audio component of the ads activated automatically as well,” says AdAge. That latter part seems unthinkable, given how universally-despised audio ads are. A total web faux pas. Unlike obscure, opaque image sub-licensing, automatically playing a cereal jingle when you go to Facebook seems like the kind of thing that actually drive people away from using Facebook. At least as regularly.

Yes, Facebook is free. And yes, ads on Facebook are only going to multiply and advance. But that doesn’t mean we can’t challenge auto-play video commercials with spontaneous sound as idiotic and obnoxious. But for now, this is just a rumor—keep your eyes and ears peeled. In the meantime, we’ve reached out to Facebook for comment. [Ad Age]

Have you noticed your friends liking stuff on Facebook that you know they don’t like? Yes? No? Well, have you seen some people like stuff on Facebook even though they’re… dead? It’s happening. And it’s because of a weird underworld of fake Facebook Likes.

Read Write took a look at the odd phenomenon of fake or accidental likes, showing countless examples of people claiming they’ve never liked a company or brand even though Facebook showed them as ‘Liking’ it. Facebook says these fake Likes aren’t fake at all but rather “accidental” mistakes, possibly done by “inadvertently pressing a button, perhaps on the mobile app.” I guess. Maybe it’s a good time to audit all your Facebook Likes to see if any rogue Likes happened to you.

But how does that explain people who’ve passed away still liking things after they’ve been, well, dead? The picture above shows a zombie Like.

A Facebook spokesman says the “likes” from dead people can happen if an account doesn’t get “memorialized” (meaning someone informs Facebook that the account-holder has died). If nobody tells Facebook that the account-holder is dead, Facebook just keeps operating on the assumption the person is alive.

And the way Facebook operates is that it keeps on recycling and re-using a user’s Like. So if you Like something from a long time ago, it could pop up again as if it was a bradn new Like. Read more about this weird Facebook phenomenon at Read Write. [Read Writer]

If this is what it looks like, it’s terrifying: an electronic voting machine that won’t let you vote for who you want to vote for.

The video, uploaded today which surfaced on Reddit, is allegedly from a voting station in Pennsylvania—a major state in the election. The man who recorded the faulty machine, which is either deliberately not allowing a touch vote for Obama, malfunctioning, or maybe just has a bad touchscreen, said the following:

My wife and I went to the voting booths this morning before work. There were 4 older ladies running the show and 3 voting booths that are similar to a science fair project in how they fold up. They had an oval VOTE logo on top center and a cartridge slot on the left that the volunteers used to start your ballot.

I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney’s name and started tapping very closely together to find the ‘active areas’. From the top of Romney’s button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama’s name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein’s button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.

I asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. She him hawed for a bit then calmly said “It’s nothing to worry about, everything will be OK.” and went back to what she was doing. I then recorded this video.

Again, there’s no proof that this is deliberate vote manipulation—or even that it’s real. Maybe the video is edited. But maybe it’s not. And if there’s a day we should err on the side of scrutiny, it’s the day when we pick the President of the United States with fallible machines. The original poster says he’s “not a video guy, but if it’s possible to prove whether a video has been altered or not, I will GLADLY provide the raw footage to anyone who is willing to do so. The jumping frames are a result of the shitty camera app on my Android phone, nothing more.”

Facebook is currently testing the feature with seven different retailers, so I went to Victoria Secret’s web page to check it out. This is what I found:

Collect? But, I didn’t want to collect, I wanted to want!

Confused, I went to the other six testing retailers (including Pottery Barn, Fab.com, and Michael Kors), but they all would only let me collect, too.

I called a Facebook spokesperson, wondering if it was something I was doing. But when I explained my wantless condition, she said, unsurprised, “Oh, that probably means you’re in the Collect group.”

You see, although everyone’s eyes went to the “Want” button in Facebook’s testing announcement, many overlooked that the social media giant is testing a “Collect” and a “Like” (yes, another “Like,” for products not people) button, too.

Users are pre-selected to only be able to do one action.

“We’re testing to see what does the best,” she said. “Who’s to say what we’re going to do in the future.” Facebook won’t say whether it will launch just one, two, all three … or none.

“As the test progresses you might be able to change, but they act exactly the same. It’s just the actual word is just differ! ent.”

Still determined to see a want button, I forced a healthy chunk of the office to go to the Victoria’s Secret page to see what button popped up. Ten people I approached in a row were also in the “Collect” group, followed by two with “Like.” (Yawn).

It wasn’t until I got to Ashley Lutz, our retail reporter (appropriately enough), that I found someone in the “Want” group.

So chances are, if you’re desperate to click the “Want” button, you’re going to have to go through a handful of friends before you find it. And enjoy it while you can, because it could easily be scrapped if the other two actions yield a better performance.

Although, the “Collect” button actually appears to offer more features than “Want” or “Like.” Taking a page out of Pinterest’s e-book, you can place the products you’re interested in in different categories like fashion, home, and shoes.

Facebook has created an option within its OpenGraph source code for social commerce that, in addition to allowing users to create a “Want” button, allows users to indicate that they bought something in the same way that they can “like” video or news articles, according to blogger Tom Waddington.

Poking around in Facebook’s OpenGraph code, he found options for a “product.purchased” option along with the aforementioned “Want” button. Waddington says:

The source code from the stream story gives a few more clues as to Facebook’s strategy for products. The Want/Unwant action link even includes ‘socialcommerce’

It’s clear that Facebook are working on a new OpenGraph representation of products.

It appears that product wants and purchases will be accessible similar to other user actions – music, news and video.

Here’s a screengrab of what it might look like:

As we explained earlier, a “Want” button coupled with some sort of social commerce action would be sort of Holy Grail for advertisers who currently do not have a way of figuring our users’ shopping desires on Facebook.

If navigating away from a musician’s timeline on Facebook to get a quick listen isn’t your favorite activity, you’re in luck. The folks in Palo Alto dropped a “Listen” button on artist pages today, giving you access to popular tracks instantly. Situated right beside the ever important “Like” button, the new feature first asks if you’d like to open your favorite music-streaming app — either Spotify, MOG, Slacker Radio or Rdio. If you’ve yet to link a service to FB, it’ll ask which you’d prefer to use. Once prompted in Spotify, for example, the app heads to the band’s library and begins playing selections from the Top Hits category. The “Listen” button then becomes a play / pause control and clicking one on another artist’s page makes the change in the app in a flash. To grab a look at the new control in action, head to your band of choice to give it a try.

Well, that didn’t take long. One day after agreeing to implement a do not track button as part of a new consumer bill of rights, Google has given the people what they want… sort of. Keep My Opt-Outs is a Chrome extension, developed by the Mountain View team, that will prevent advertisers from using your browsing history against you. Presumably, this function will get built straight into the browser one day but, for now, you have to go dig it up in the Chrome Web Store — far from an ideal solution. Still, a tepid step into the shallow end is better than no step at all. You can install the extension yourself at the source.

Pinterest! It is the hottest social media whatever the hell it is out there. Is there a Pinterest button on this site yet? (No? Jeremy, please get on that!) Because Pinterest should be everywhere, and everything should be Pinterest.

Pinterest! Pinterest! Pinterest!

Journalists! If you are writing a story about something, and you do not mention Pinterest, what are you thinking, really? I don’t care what your story is about, you still need to mention Pinterest. Steve Jobs? Mention Pinterest! Mitt Romney? Mention Pinterest! Genocide? Mention Pinterest! What do you mean that’s in poor taste? Mention it, Goddamn you! Mention Pinterest!

Similarly, if you are starting a company and it is not a Pinterest clone, I feel bad for you son. All the big baller VCs in the valley need a Pinterest hook right now if you expect them to relate to you. If your turd factory isn’t a Pinterest spin-off you might as well not even share your poop with me. Because I won’t care! Each and every elevator pitch is now required to begin with “It’s like Pinterest for _____“

It’s a new year, which probably means that you’re due for new business cards. And look, your card design from last year is precisely that — so last year. Moo has announced a clever new design, which allows you to “take your Facebook Timeline offline, and hand it out to new friends, contacts and potential clients.” Wildly enough, creating ’em is as easy as tweaking your Timeline. Once you’re ready to roll, just sign in and allow Moo to access your data (cue privacy advocate yelling), check that you spelled your name right and hand over $15 for a stack of 50 cards. Once you receive ’em, you can navigate back to the site and Like its page as a reward… oh, wait.

Digital Consigliere

Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.